About North Korea’s Rocket Launch: It Was All Kim Jong Eun

From a balcony above the launch control center, Kim Jong Eun has a smoke a few minutes into the the rocket’s journey. The picture was taken by KCNA and distributed to international news agencies.

Two days after successfully launching a rocket into space, North Korea’s propaganda apparatus kicked in to make sure the world knows that dictator Kim Jong Eun played an important role in making it happen.

The initial reports from North Korea on Wednesday mentioned that the rocket launch was done on the wishes of Mr. Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, who died on Dec. 17 last year, to honor his father, Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea and its supreme ruler for about 46 years. They said nothing about Kim Jong Eun.

That all changed in the wee hours of Friday morning, when Korean Central News Agency published a dispatch that announced Kim Jong Eun gave a written order for the launch.

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“He visited the General Satellite Control and Command Center at 9 a.m., one hour before the launch,” the dispatch said, adding that he “keenly observed” the launch.

“He stressed the need to continue to launch satellites in the future, too, to develop the country’s science, technology and economy,” KCNA said.

No pressure on the technicians or anything.

Throughout Friday, more dispatches and photos kept coming about the young Mr. Kim and the rocket.

One of the pictures showed, Mr. Kim smoking a cigarette from his balcony above the control room at 9:59 a.m., about 10 minutes after liftoff.

KCNA also distributed photos showing Mr. Kim sitting a desk with a phone to his ear and a microphone in front of him, presumably appearing to order the launch.

Later Friday, KCNA published another dispatch with the headline that said a space scientist credited Mr. Kim for the success of the launch. The scientist said Mr. Kim “personally set a date and time suitable to the launch and gave a final written order.”

“Through the course of its launch, we, space scientists, came to feel again that Kim Jong Eun is a peerlessly great man identical to President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il and that he is a master of science and a great teacher,” the space scientist, who was not identified by name, said in the KCNA dispatch.

The KCNA reporter must have counted himself or herself lucky to get a quote that tied together all the important themes of the day in just one sentence.

KCNA on Friday also sent out a dispatch that trumpeted the congratulatory message issued by one of Iran’s top generals, Masoud Jazayeri, in Tehran on Wednesday. Iran has long been a buyer of missile components and technology from North Korea.

KCNA

Kim Jong Eun, on the phone in the North Korea launch center, in a photo distributed by KCNA.